United States President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row, replacing capital punishment with life imprisonment, the White House announced on Monday. The decision comes weeks before President-elect Donald Trump is set to assume office for his second term.
“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden said in a statement.
The commutations align with Biden’s moratorium on federal executions, except for cases involving terrorism or hate-motivated mass murder.
The three inmates remaining on death row include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Dylann Roof, responsible for the 2015 Charleston church shooting; and Robert Bowers, who carried out the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue attack in Pittsburgh.
The 37 individuals granted clemency include nine convicted of murdering fellow inmates, four involved in murders during bank robberies, and one who killed a prison guard.
Among them is Billie Jerome Allen, convicted at 19 for a Missouri robbery that resulted in a security guard’s death. Amnesty International has criticised the case for alleged racial bias and a lack of conclusive evidence.
Rights groups, including Amnesty International, have welcomed Biden’s move but urged him to push further. “The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment,” said Amnesty International USA’s Executive Director Paul O’Brien.
The United States saw 25 executions at the state level in 2024, though the death penalty has been abolished in 23 states, with moratoriums in place in six others.
Trump, who previously served as president from 2017 to 2021, oversaw 13 federal executions, the most in over a century. He has consistently supported capital punishment, including for undocumented migrants accused of murder.
